“Burke shows again that he’s not just a comic genius, but also a fine dramatic writer and storyteller.” – Booklist. “Prose both scabrous and poetic.” – Publishers Weekly. “Proust meets Chandler over a pint of Guinness.” – Spectator. “A sheer pleasure.” – Tana French. “Among the most memorable books of the year, of any genre.” – Sunday Times. “A hardboiled delight.” – Guardian. “Imagine Donald Westlake and Richard Stark collaborating on a screwball noir.” – Kirkus Reviews. “A cross between Raymond Chandler and Flann O’Brien.” – John Banville. “The effortless cool of Elmore Leonard at his peak.” – Ray Banks. “A fine writer at the top of his game.” – Lee Child.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Hurrah For Graphic Non-Violence

Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl has all requirements for a classic Hollywood anti-hero – he’s smart, sassy, and capable of a moral ambiguity that’d curl Harry Potter’s wand without ever resorting to tiresomely graphic violence, which is nice when it comes to the all-important age ratings. Now Artemis is available in graphic novel format, ingeniously titled ARTEMIS FOWL: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL – or, as we like to think of it, a movie storyboard. Quoth Publisher’s Weekly:

Written by Colfer and Andrew Donkin, with art by Giovanni Rigano, the graphic novel is based on the first book in the five-book Artemis Fowl prose series and is being published simultaneously in hardcover and paperback editions, with an initial print run totalling 100,000 copies … Colfer teamed with the experienced comic artist Andrew Donkin, whose works include BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK NIGHT (DC), to ensure the pacing was right … Together, the far-flung team has created a dark, lush, eerie world which … brings Fowl, a ne’er-do-well boy genius, his allies and his enemies to life. Information sheets, mimicking government agency surveillance files, help introduce characters and allow novices to the Fowl world to keep up. While there is always concern that fans will criticize the visual representation of characters they themselves have been imagining for years, so far … the main response from devoted readers has been “excitement.”

“Among the most memorable books of the year, of any genre, was Declan Burke’s ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL ... a fiendishly dark thriller that evokes the best of Flann O’Brien and Bret Easton Ellis.” - Sunday Times

“As good a collection of short essays on crime fiction as one is likely to find.” - Washington Post